Dear Families,
The Transformative Power of Wide Open Skies
Though my parents both grew up in the Midwest, I was always a die hard city kid. From a very young age, I knew how to find my way from the Shuttle train to the 2/3 platform in Times Square as well as from the Temple of Dendur to the Degas at the Met. I remember the old Hall of Gems at the Museum of Natural History nostalgically. I’m completely at ease in a crowd, but I also get irrationally irritated if the crowd isn’t moving quickly enough, even when I have no reason in particular to be in a hurry.
However, because the rest of our extended family lived in Minnesota, I also learned, at a very early age, how to skate on a frozen pond with my two hockey playing uncles, who brought me inside red-cheeked, happy, and unable to feel my toes. I went fishing, picked cattails, and sanded handmade wooden toys with my grandfather. And when my son learned to fish a few years ago, I happily handed him the muddy worms he had dug up himself in the vegetable garden that morning, as I realized that the lake we were drifting on still brings me a deep sense of peace, not only because it is beautiful, but because those days on the lake from childhood continue to reside in a quiet place in my otherwise urban soul.
Now that I’m a parent in New York, I often find myself bowled over by the many astonishing and unique opportunities the city places in our backyard. And yet I am also always struck, when we leave the city, by how much less frequently I say “no” in the course of a day as soon as we are free from traffic zipping by in every direction, sharing the sidewalk with throngs of other pedestrians, and the onslaught of stimulation that constantly bombards all of our senses. I watch my son relax, as the range of his freedom expands—the towering buildings that usually constrain our view of the horizon, replaced by open fields and wide blue skies, and the horns and sirens of Broadway, replaced by the sound of a breeze moving through the trees or a loon calling out across the lake.
Despite my city kid roots, I’ve come to believe that it is developmentally critical—not just beneficial but truly essential—for children to spend some time outside of the city, away from the overwhelming sights and sounds and the many limitations imposed by the constant rush of people and traffic. Environmental educator Richard Louv notes, “An indoor (or backseat) childhood does reduce some dangers to children; but other risks are heightened, including risks to physical and psychological health, risk to children's concept and perception of community, risk to self-confidence and the ability to discern true danger.” By contrast, time spent in nature is a balm that becomes a part of us and impacts every aspect of our wellbeing as individuals and as a community. Louv goes on to say, “In our bones we need the natural curves of hills, the scent of chapparal, the whisper of pines, the possibility of wildness. We require these patches of nature for our mental health and our spiritual resilience.”
This infusion of nature is a profound benefit of summer camp for many city children. The bus ride out of Manhattan each day takes them to a place that not only provides opportunities for swimming, sports, and crafts, but also provides a critical sense of connection to their world and powerful feelings of confidence and competence that swell as they run, swim, and climb farther and faster, unconstrained by the limits of intersections and shared sidewalks.
Camp is a transformative place, particularly for our city kids, who can’t just step out their back door and into the woods. We are especially fortunate at the JCC to be able to provide our children with these experiences at the incredibly beautiful Camp Settoga (4-12yr olds) and to set the stage for those daily journeys out of the city at Day Camp here in the Nursery School (3-6yr olds). I encourage you to use the links below to get to know more about our camp programs, and if you do not already know Adam Metzger, Head Teacher in Classroom 4 and Director at Camp Settoga, to introduce yourself and feel free to ask him any questions you may have. The knowledge of child development and the continuity of relationships and community that Adam and many of our Nursery School teachers provide for children, both on the 2nd floor and at Settoga, is another very special feature of the camp experience here at the JCC.
In this amazing but hectic city, where we are all raising our children, there is something unique about the seamless yet dynamic journey of a child and a family, as you grow together from nursery school to camp and beyond, in the embrace of a community of peers and teachers, who know your child well and can offer safe, individualized opportunities for them to discover potential they may not have known existed within them!
Day Camp @ the JCC 2020 dates + rates
Camp Settoga 2020 dates + rates
Link to Register
Shabbat shalom,
Alicia